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arXiv:2107.07824 · SciPost Physics

Relative entropic uncertainty relation for scalar quantum fields

Stefan Floerchinger, Tobias Haas, Markus Schröfl

Published Mar 10, 2022• 7 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Entropic uncertainty is a well-known concept to formulate uncertainty relations for continuous variable quantum systems with finitely many degrees of freedom. Typically, the bounds of such relations scale with the number of oscillator modes, preventing a straight-forward generalization to quantum field theories. In this work, we overcome this difficulty by introducing the notion of a functional relative entropy and show that it has a meaningful field theory limit. We present the first entropic uncertainty relation for a scalar quantum field theory and exemplify its behavior by considering few particle excitations and the thermal state. Also, we show that the relation implies the multidimensional Heisenberg uncertainty relation.

DOI
10.21468/scipostphys.12.3.089

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Entropic uncertainty is a well-known concept to formulate uncertainty relations for continuous variable quantum systems with finitely many degrees of freedom. Typically, the bounds of such relations scale with the number of oscillator modes, preventing a straight-forward generalization to quantum field theories. In this work, we overcome this difficulty by introducing the notion of a functional relative entropy and show that it has a meaningful field theory limit. We present the first entropic uncertainty relation for a scalar quantum field theory and exemplify its behavior by considering few particle excitations and the thermal state. Also, we show that the relation implies the multidimensional Heisenberg uncertainty relation.
We present a general way of quantifying the entropic uncertainty of quantum field configurations in phase space in terms of entropic distinguishability with respect to the vacuum. Our approach is based on the functional Husimi Q -distribution and a suitably chosen relative entropy, which we show to be non-trivially bounded from above by the uncertainty principle. The resulting relative entropic uncertainty relation is as general as the concept of coherent states and thus holds for quantum fields of bosonic and fermionic type. Its simple form enables diverse applications, among which we present a complete characterization of the uncertainty surplus of arbitrary states in terms of the total particle number for a scalar field and the fermionic description of the Ising model. Moreover, we provide a quantitative interpretation of the role of the uncertainty principle for quantum phase transitions.
Abstract Uncertainty relations are central to quantum physics. While they were originally formulated in terms of variances, they have later been successfully expressed with entropies following the advent of Shannon information theory. Here, we review recent results on entropic uncertainty relations involving continuous variables, such as position x and momentum p . This includes the generalization to arbitrary (not necessarily canonically-conjugate) variables as well as entropic uncertainty relations that take x - p correlations into account and admit all Gaussian pure states as minimum uncertainty states. We emphasize that these continuous-variable uncertainty relations can be conveniently reformulated in terms of entropy power, a central quantity in the information-theoretic description of random signals, which makes a bridge with variance-based uncertainty relations. In this review, we take the quantum optics viewpoint and consider uncertainties on the amplitude and phase quadratures of the electromagnetic field, which are isomorphic to x and p , but the formalism applies to all such variables (and linear combinations thereof) regardless of their physical meaning. Then, in the second part of this paper, we move on to new results and introduce a tighter entropic uncertainty relation for two arbitrary vectors of intercommuting continuous variables that takes correlations into account. It is proven conditionally on reasonable assumptions. Finally, we present some conjectures for new entropic uncertainty relations involving more than two continuous variables.
Abstract We show that a proper expression of the uncertainty relation for a pair of canonically-conjugate continuous variables relies on entropy power, a standard notion in Shannon information theory for real-valued signals. The resulting entropy-power uncertainty relation is equivalent to the entropic formulation of the uncertainty relation due to Bialynicki-Birula and Mycielski, but can be further extended to rotated variables. Hence, based on a reasonable assumption, we give a partial proof of a tighter form of the entropy-power uncertainty relation taking correlations into account and provide extensive numerical evidence of its validity. Interestingly, it implies the generalized (rotation-invariant) Schrödinger–Robertson uncertainty relation exactly as the original entropy-power uncertainty relation implies Heisenberg relation. It is saturated for all Gaussian pure states, in contrast with hitherto known entropic formulations of the uncertainty principle.
Within the framework of thermo-field-dynamics, we define the reduced probability densities, and investigate the sum of information-theoretic entropies in quantum mechanics associated with the measurements of the position and momentum of a particle surrounded by the thermal environment. It is found that this quantity cannot be made arbitrarily small but has a universal lower bound dependent on the temperature. We develop the finite-temperature variational technique for the reduced system, and show that this relation, termed the thermal information-entropic uncertainty relation, is exactly saturated by the thermal coherent state. We also show that the Heisenberg uncertainty relation at finite temperature can be derived from this relation.
The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is one of the characteristics of quantum mechanics. With the vigorous development of quantum information theory, uncertain relations have gradually played an important role in it. In particular, in order to solved the shortcomings of the concept in the initial formulation of the uncertainty principle, we brought entropy into the uncertainty relation, after that, the entropic uncertainty relation has exploited the advantages to the full in various applications. As we all know the entropic uncertainty relation has became the core element of the security analysis of almost all quantum cryptographic protocols. This review mainly introduces development history and latest progress of uncertain relations. After Heisenberg's argument that incompatible measurement results are impossible to predict, many scholars, inspired by this viewpoint, have made further relevant investigations. They combined the quantum correlation between the observable object and its environment, and carried out various generalizations of the uncertainty relation to obtain more general formulas. In addition, it also focuses on the entropy uncertainty relationship and quantum-memory-assisted entropic uncertainty relation, and the dynamic characteristics of uncertainty in some physical systems. Finally, various applications of the entropy uncertainty relationship in the field of quantum information are discussed, from randomnesss to wave-particle duality to quantum key distribution.